A runner posed in front of the finish line for the New York City Marathon, which was canceled last month in the wake superstorm Sandy.

Organizers of the New York City Marathon will offer runners a full refund because of the cancellation of this year’s race, a departure from the group’s normal policy.

After nearly seven weeks of at times hostile negotiations with their insurers, the New York Road Runners secured a multi-million dollar settlement Thursday that allowed them to offer runners the chance to either take a refund or choose to run in the marathon during the next three years.

Disappointed runners who don’t want the refund can gain automatic entry into one of the 2013-15 marathons or the New York City Half-Marathon in March. However, those runners will have to pay new registration fees instead of using their 2012 fees as credit. They will get to pay the 2012 registration rate.

Citing a confidentiality agreement with three insurance companies, the Road Runners declined to say how much money they are reaping from the settlement, even though the nonprofit organization will eventually have to report the figure on their annual tax forms. Still, the options offered to runners illustrate the financial difficulties the running club faced in the wake of the cancellation of last month’s race after superstorm Sandy.

The club, which collects about $60 million each year, operates with a thin cushion. Even with the cancellation insurance, the Road Runners couldn’t afford to give full refunds to all 60,000 registered participants or offer free entry into the upcoming races.

“We’re happy for people to choose, whatever works for them, and we’re hoping it gets spread out over a variety of the options,” Mary Wittenberg, chief executive of the running club, said in an interview Thursday. “It was critical for us to go beyond the no-refund policy.”

With little clarity on how much insurance money the club is receiving, the offers will certainly irk some runners who felt the Road Runners should have allowed them entry into another marathon free of charge. At nearly every other sporting event when weather causes a cancellation, ticket buyers are given a ticket to a similar event at a later date but not offered a refund.

But the New York Marathon, like most races, has a clear no-refund policy even when the event has to be cancelled due to severe weather. Given that policy, the running club was paying an insurance premium based on the concept that it wouldn’t ever have to pay refunds or give free passes to some 60,000 runners all at once.

Wittenberg said the group’s three-year insurance policy actually expired after this year’s race. The club is in the market for a new policy and may try to find a way to do away with its prohibition against refunds.

“I don’t know that a no refund policy makes sense in the case of a marathon,’ she said.

Runners in New York pay on average about $250 to register for the race, significantly more than nearly every other race of its kind, with international runners paying in excess of $300.